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Old 03-25-2022, 12:02 PM
  #3969  
cactusflyer
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Joined APC: Jul 2014
Posts: 216
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Originally Posted by bmundle View Post
Soooo...is applying to Horizon not the best idea? I'm about 6 months out and was looking at applying. Super bummed to hear about the Q400, I was thinking that would be the plane I'd try to get on.
Applying here right now is probably a very bad idea, unless you're some kind of compulsive gambler who hates certainty.

From what we've been told so far, Horizon will park just under 50% of our total fleet no later than the end of 2023 (and an email today made it clear that timeline may move up significantly), and only about half of those losses are scheduled to be replaced, but that won't be completed until 2025. No one in management seems to have any idea how many airplanes or pilots we're supposed to have when this is all done, what bases we'll have, or even if Horizon will still be around by 2025.

If you come here now, the best case is that your seniority remains absolutely stagnant as the first 9 Q400's are parked (if they're replaced 1:1 with 175's), but it'll likely move backwards as more senior Q pilots move to the jet, and that backslide will speed up as the remaining Q's get parked without replacement. If your plan is to use the Pathways program to go to Alaska, keep in mind that Alaska can and will change the Pathways requirements whenever they feel like it, and if this decision increases attrition at Horizon beyond what's already happening, there's a very good chance Alaska will effectively shut the program down to try and stem the losses at Horizon.

Since the current plan ends with Horizon only having about 2/3 as many airplanes as it does now, there's a distinct possibility that you'd get displaced at least once as the airline shrinks, and there's a very strong possibility of Horizon closing one or more bases in the process too, so I can't think of any reasons to come to Horizon unless/until management comes up with some kind of coherent plan to address the obvious questions they've so far failed to provide any answers for.
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